The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) appealed to the National Bank for assistance in settling the media holding’s debts of former bank shareholders. This is featured in the article “No more football. UEFA asks the National Bank to pay Mr. Kolomoisky’s debts”, published by the “European Pravda” .
According to the NBU briefing note, on 12 July 2012, UEFA concluded an agreement with the company TV Media Planet LTD on TV broadcasts of the Champions League 2012-2015, the UEFA Super Cup 2012-2014 and the League of Europe 2012-2015 for EUR 3.2 million. The guarantor for that payment was Privatbank.
“In July 2015, the TV Media Planet LTD asked UEFA to extend the payment deadline under the contract due to the tough economic environment in Ukraine. UEFA agreed the delay until 1 December 2016, subject to a satisfaction of half of the debt, i.e. EUR 1.6 million”, as the edition informs.
The article specifies that on 16 September 2015, two agreements were signed with the Cypriot branch of Privatbank to provide international guarantees for EUR 1.6 million to secure the payment of fee for UEFA media rights. The “1+1 Production” pledged its equipment for a total amount of UAH 58 million. The pledged assets are owned by the “1+1 Production”.
On the eve of the bank nationalization, on 1 December 2016, the TV Media Planet LTD failed its commitment to UEFA, and on 13 December 2016, the latter put in a written demand to the bank for the overall amount of guarantees. The funds were not transferred as well. Today, UEFA is looking forward to the assistance of the Ukrainian authorities.
The article says that NBU forwarded the UEFA letter to the Ministry of Finance, being the bank owner, answering letter-writers that it was not the bank owner. The regulator also recommended Privatbank to consider the issue of collecting the debt or pledge from the “1+1 Production”.
The “European Pravda” sent a request to the “1+1 Production”, asking why the company failed payments for broadcasting matches and whether it was ready to transfer pledged assets to the bank, but it got no response. Privatbank did not provide any comments on the edition’s request too.
According to the informant of the “European Pravda”, the collection of debts from the media company seems illusory. Lawyers confirm that the change of ownership does not exempt the bank from its obligations.
